I have just finished "reading" Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, and it was an excellent book! I actually had it in Audiobook format, one of the two free Audiobooks I got by getting a trial subscription to Audible.com (if they still give away free books, you should definetely try it). The book was read by Sarah herself, who has a childish voice, but not in an annoying way - she has a cute voice actually. She reminds me of Samantha Bee, from the Daily Show.The book is about her trips to places related to the 3 American presidential assassinations of the 19th century, most importantly Lincoln's. She also tells little side stories about the characters: the Presidents, the Assassins, and others involved. Most notoriously, she talks a bit about the one person present at all the Assassinations: Robert Todd Lincoln, the President's son.
In spite of the somber topic, the book is very amusing. Rather than a straight forward historical account of facts, it is peppered with "human interest pieces", and funny tales about the historical charcaters and about her own trip.
This book was quite a find, as I was getting bored of listening to Al Franken "Liars" book on my trips to NY. It was a good book, initially, but somewhere in the middle it started talking about Bush's election and I have heard about it so much that it was just boring at this point. That's when I decided to listen to whatever other books I had, and Sarah's book just captured my attention from the beginning. She gets extra points from also talking about Bush and drawing historical parallels to past political turmoils, and concluding with a foreboding "History Repeats Itself".
Semana passada foi Ação de Graças aqui nos Estados Unidos, e eu fui com a Inês para o jantar na Casa do Josh, que a gente conhece do clube de Salsa. OJosh é o rapaz de camisa azul e barbicha no fundo. Também foram o Marc-André (o Canadense, também da física, de vermelho) e o Michael ("roommate" da Inês, do lado dela).
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